Catching Up

I am in northeast Florida for a brief visit with the rest of my family (parents, sister, niece and all the rest) prior to a weekend's worth of work in the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. At dinner last night with my sister and brother-in-law and at breakfast this morning with my parents, the conversation was all about "catching up":

How's work?
How's health?
How are other extended family members (uncles, aunts, cousins)?
What's going on (or not)?
What are plans for next week? Next month? Next year?

Much of the chatting would be characterized as "small talk", but beneath the talk are the bonds of love and affection which have been formed through years of relationship -- times when these relationships have been really close and times when they have been strained.

In the telling of our various vignettes of how our lives are unfolding, I hear and see the ways we relate to each other -- the comfortable familiarity, the ease of laughter, the awareness of certain parts of our history which won't be revisited during such a brief time together.

Reflecting on these few hours, I couldn't help but think about how we have turned concept of "family" into an ideal (or is it idol?) that is "high and lifted up" from the ways in which most of us get to live. The meaningful moments are indeed found in the presence one gives to the mundane moments. Perhaps if we could reclaim a degree of realism with regards to our familial relationships this would lead us "church types" towards a more patient stance with our respective communities of faith.

Families aren't perfect. Neither are local congregations. But in many instances, we're all doing the best we can to connect with other human beings -- to remind ourselves God never intended us for isolation. After all, for Christians, the way we speak of God begins with the understanding of God in Community with God's Self -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Maybe the way we begin to catch up with God is to invest the time necessary to catch up with one another.

Sent from my iPad